There has been a “historic rise” in the number of executions in Iran since Hassan Rouhani took office as the Iranian regime’s President, the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC) said on Saturday.
Tehran has also ignored a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding that it avoid all new work on ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons, Majid Sadeghpour, political director of the OIAC wrote on Saturday in Townhall.
Objectively assessed, the article said, the Iranian regime’s actions since last year’s nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), particularly when viewed in light of its behavior in the past 37 years must be regarded as a “willful and defiant decision by the regime & its President Hassan Rouhani’s to step-up work on these weapons.”
It added: “A historic rise in notwithstanding, nearly two years’ worth of sample size belie Rouhani’s moderate claims. There apparently is more at play here. As it turns out, the latest ballistic missile test in Iran occurred at a fortuitous time. Recent Iranian mischief occurred just as a New York Times revelation linked President Obama and White House foreign policy advisor Ben Rhodes to a willful effort to promote a narrative of Iranian moderation to justify the nuclear negotiating process, including while Rouhani stood for Iran’s presidential selection.”
“The New York Times’ exposé and the April missile launch speak volumes about recent US Iran policy missteps. The Iranian test launch reiterates that its foreign policy posture has not changed. Now that Rouhani’s supposedly moderate disposition is seen as an invention of the Obama administration (and likely that of Ayatollah Khamenei), seriously expecting a change in Iranian regime behavior is at best naive. Even before Rouhani’s rise to presidency, staunch critics of Iran’s theocratic regime, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) led by Maryam Rajavi had warned of the latter. Today, we can only hope that their message (one that will again be articulated by participants in an international gathering in Paris on July 9th) will have more resonance.”
“For its part, Congress is moving to hold Iran accountable,” the article pointed out.
U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member, Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY) recently noted that, “Iran’s recent ballistic-missile tests directly contravened the expressed purpose of the UN Security Council and were meant to test our resolve.” The Iranian regime’s leaders, he added, “Insisted that their ballistic-missile program and support for terrorism be off the table during the nuclear negotiations. Now they have to face the music as we act to target this behavior and those who support it.”
The Committee’s Chairman, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), meanwhile called on the Obama administration to stop, “tripping over technicalities” to “explain how they don’t violate the president’s deeply flawed nuclear deal.”
The article in Townhall added: “Let’s hope that the next administration, whomever runs it, will recognize the expertise of the individuals and credible Iranian dissident groups as it sets future U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic. By and large, the Iranian opposition has recommended ramping up pressure on the theocratic regime and U.S. outreach towards the people of Iran.”
“There is good reason to believe that if the United States had followed this course of action (or if it adopts it soon), it will be able to elicit greater concessions and force Iran’s fundamentalist zealots into choices which yield either large-scale reform within Iran or an internal regime collapse. Given the organized nature of Iran’s main opposition movement, both would be positive developments as either would help improve prospects of regional peace as well democracy for the Iranian people.”
